366 IMPREGNATION OF THE SEED. t'HAP. VII. 



But the doctrine is yet liable to a much more se- 

 rious objection ; for if the seed is generated from 

 the union of two fecundating principles which form 

 an intermediate offspring, then female plants of the 

 class Dicecia ought occasionally to produce seeds 

 whose offspring shall be Hermaphrodite^ or at least 

 Monoecious, which was never yet known to happen. 



SECTION III. 

 Hybrids. 



Asiilus- ALTHOUGH the arguments of the epigenisists are 

 STexpe- by no means satisfactory, yet it cannot be denied 

 Bradlfey ^at hybrid productions partake of the properties 

 and Mr. fc^ o f fa Q ma l e an( J female from which they 



Knight, 



spring. This was long ago proved to be the fact 

 by Bradley,* and more recently confirmed by the 

 experiments of Mr. Knight; as well as happily 

 converted to the advantage of the cultivator. Ob- 

 serving that farmers who rear cattle improve the 

 progeny by means of crossing the breed, he pre- 

 sumed from analogy that the same improvement 

 might be introduced into vegetables. His prin- 

 cipal object was that of procuring new and im- 

 proved varieties of the Apple and Pear to supply 

 the place of such as had become diseased and im- 

 productive, by being cultivated beyond the period 



* New Impr. of Plant, and Garden. Lond. 1717. 



